Ghost Stories
by StacyMcMissile
Summary: Sometime after the events of 'Experience,' the townsfolk and spies are gathered at the cafe one night when the topic of The Ghostlight gets brought up. Sheriff shares the familiar tale while the new residents think of a story of their own to tell.


**Got the idea for this from mah friend Kitty. THANKS MATER! xD**

 **Sure took a long ass time to post it, though. Geez. Since it was Halloween yesterday and the sequel to The Legend of Stalker Siddeley isn't ready to be posted yet, I decided to quickly finish this up. Woo!**

 **Well, I TRIED to quickly finish this up. I wanted to post it on Halloween. Oops. A week late is still good, right?**

 **Also quick PSA, I'm in the middle of editing 'Experience' so that it sounds LESS like a 13-year-old girl wrote it… Yeah.**

 **I have no idea what time frame this story takes place in. Sometime after 'Experience,' I guess.**

 **Enjoy!**

It was an average night in Radiator Springs. Very few clouds drifted across the dark sky lit up by a million stars and a light breeze blew through the town. Most of the residents were parked under the teal glow of the café lights. There were a few scattered conversations in low tones throughout the group, but for the most part, it was quiet.

"The stars out here are awesome." Annabel murmured in awe, looking up at the endless array of nightlights.

"Yeah." Aaron agreed, who was seated on the ground next to her.

"Hey, where's Mater?" She wondered aloud, looking around.

"I think… Pranking again…?" Lightning suggested from their left.

"Again?" Holley echoed. "Of course he is…" she sighed.

"Hey, remember when we got back at him that one night…?" Lightning grinned at Sally and nudged her with his tire. Sally smiled and nodded.

"How could I forget? The _Ghostlight,_ " she held out 'light' for longer than necessary for effect, then laughed.

"Sally!" said a voice and everyone turned to see Sheriff. "What have I told y'all? Don't mock the Ghostlight."

"Um, sorry to interrupt, Sheriff, but… What exactly is the Ghostlight?" Holley spoke up.

Everyone got unusually quiet.

"Mater goes on about it all the time." Finn agreed, exchanging a glance with Holley.

"The Ghostlight?" Annabel repeated. "I know he mentioned it twice in the first movie, but… Do you ever explain it?" She asked.

"I think there was a short on the DVD… I never saw it…" Aaron quietly answered.

"Dang it, I must've not remembered it when I remembered the movies…" Annabel murmured, crossing her arms.

"We've done been over this before, it ain't real!" Mater grinned, driving up next to Sheriff.

"Oh, really?" Sheriff challenged.

"Yup!" Mater grinned. "You said so yerself!" He confidentially spoke.

"Okay, well, _regardless_ of whether it exists or not… What is it?" Holley asked again.

"It _is_ real!" Sheriff had the town's attention, now.

"But… Doc said the only thing we've got to be afraid of is our imaginations and the Screamin' Ban—" Lightning was cut off by Sally's tire.

"The _what_ now?" Annabel turned towards Lightning.

"Forget about it—what's the Ghostlight?" Finn practically demanded.

"The Ghostlight…" Sheriff began driving towards Holley and Finn as he spoke. "Is a glowing orb of blue translucent light that haunts these very parts." A few of the townsfolk rolled their eyes at the ghost story that Sheriff has been telling for years, others rolled forward a bit, excited to hear it again.

A gust of wind blew gently through town, chilling the air slightly, setting the perfect mood for the tale.

"It all started on a night like tonight." He continued, turning his gaze from Holley, to Finn, to Annabel, to Aaron. "The song dogs were wailin' at the moon off Cadillac Range while the summer wind blew hot like the breath of Zozobra."

"What's Zozobra?" Annabel whispered. Finn shushed her.

Sheriff ignored her. "A young couple was heading down this very stretch of the mother road when they spotted an unnatural blue glow." 'Glow' echoed off the silence around the café.

Whether they wanted to listen or not, everyone sat in silence while the story was told. Sheriff spoke of the forgotten young couple trapped down the road in the dark, stripped and devoured by the mysterious light while their screams echoed into the night.

"…all that was left, were two out-of-state license plates. So remember:" he prepared to conclude, raising his voice a bit. "The one thing that angers the Ghostlight more than anything else is the sound," He paused for dramatic effect. "Of clanking metal."

"Nope, nope-nope-not again!" Mater cried and tightly held himself together.

"As you head home tonight, keep an eye out." Sheriff announced, eyeing everyone. "The Ghostlight could be _anywhere._ "

Everyone was quiet.

Annabel took out a sheet of paper.

"…What are you doing?" Lightning asked, raising an eyelid.

"Adding to my list of irrational fears." Annabel calmly replied.

"What?" Lightning asked with a smile. "You can't have enough to actually have a li—Holy crap that's a lot." He interrupted himself, eyes wide as he read over her shoulder.

"What exactly is the "Big Fat Scary Man"?" Finn asked, reading as well.

"You don't wanna know." Annabel snapped at them, putting the list away.

"Um, so… What's the story behind the Screamin' Banshee?" Mater looked over at Sheriff.

"The what." Annabel looked up.

"I don't really know. Doc never told me the whole story." Sheriff shrugged. "I wouldn't worry about it."

"No one _really_ believes either of those are real, right?" Finn chuckled.

"You'd be surprised." Flo spoke up.

"I've been working long enough to know the real monsters in this world aren't monsters at all. It's other cars." Finn shrugged.

"If there's one thing I can agree with…" Sarge nodded towards Finn.

Annabel was looking at her list again. "I… I beg to differ…"

" _Really,_ what _are_ all these?" Finn asked, looking back at the list.

"Nothing you wanna know about." She shook her head.

"Right." Finn sounded skeptical.

"But that's seriously all it is? A light that supposedly eats cars?" Holley asked.

"Yeah but hey, man you should've seen Mater when we hooked a blue lantern on his tow cable." Ramone laughed. "'Course, I… I didn't stay for the whole thing." His smile dropped. "What happened, again?"

"He eventually tuckered himself out and realized it wasn't the Ghostlight." Sally smiled.

"See what'cha guys _really_ gotta worry about…" Annabel got to her feet. "Is—"

"Nope." Aaron clamped his hand over her mouth.

Annabel let out a frustrated noise as she pried his arm away. "But—"

"Nope." He repeated. Her eyes narrowed and she stuck out her lower lip. A few cars laughed.

"Okay, but what about Slen—" Annabel tried again.

"No!" Aaron cut her off. "No… No—no—no—no things, none of your creepy stories. I've had enough of those."

She crossed her arms. "Okay… But what about—"

" _Annabel!_ " Aaron interrupted, exasperated.

"Oh, come on, Aaron." Lightning laughed. "If Annie's got a ghost story she wants to tell, let's hear it."

Aaron looked like he couldn't decide what he wanted to say. "I don't…" he trailed off.

"Come o-o-on…" Annabel stuck out her lower lip again.

"Even I'm curious, now." Finn chuckled with a sly smile.

"Question." Aaron turned back towards Annabel. "Is it from a video game and/or show and/or movie?" He phrased it like a statement.

"Uhh…" She held 'uh' out for a while before deciding what to answer. "M… Maybe…?" She grinned sheepishly.

"Choose a different one…" Aaron sighed.

"Fine…" She grumbled. "Oh!" She exclaimed, an idea coming to her. "Has anyone here ever heard of the Russian Sle—"

" _Not that either!_ " Aaron interrupted.

Annabel fell back down into a sitting position. "Fine." She crossed her arms.

"I mean, I might have one…" Holley timidly spoke up.

"You do?" Finn sounded genuinely surprised.

"Maybe. I mean… I have a story that someone once told me once when I was younger."

"Do tell." Annabel grinned.

"Or not." Aaron glanced at Annabel.

"Um… Okay. So," Holley began. "I was told once there was this car who worked in a tire shop."

Guido hid behind Luigi.

"He was an average bloke, he had a wife and two kids." She continued. "He lived in an old farmhouse somewhere in Wales. He didn't exactly love his life, but he didn't hate it, either. He loved his wife, loved his kids.

"One day, he woke up all alone. He searched around for his family, but all he could find was a cryptic note. He spent hours trying to figure it out.

"Before he realized it, night had fallen. Once he had noticed, it was because of a noise he heard in another part of the house.

"He went to go investigate, but couldn't find the source of the crash. He was about to give up when he heard the same noise—on the other end of the house. Quickly driving over, he noticed something in the front window. He spun around, but there was nothing.

"Deciding he was simply tired and seeing things, he decided to go to bed."

"Oh-h-h, shiz, somethin' spoopy's gonna go down." Annabel whispered to Finn.

Finn blinked. "What."

"Spoopy's gonna… Never mind."

Holley continued. "Just as he was going to settle down to bed, he heard the noise again downstairs. Again, he rushed to see what it was, but there was nothing, no one.

"Suddenly overcome with the feeling someone was watching him, he slowly turned around to face the front window—the same place he thought he saw something earlier.

"Parked there in the front yard was a creature of terrifying proportions. The most distinct feature of it, was its sickening smile."

Finn murmured, "Holley, where on earth did you hear this…?"

"The bloke froze, terrified to make any sudden movements. It occurred to him this creature may have been the reason his family was missing, but he couldn't be sure. He didn't even know what this creature was. He's never seen anything like it before.

"He couldn't take it staring at him anymore. The sick feeling inside him was growing the longer he watched the creature, so he turned around, grabbing his phone. He glanced back at the creature to see if it had moved, and it had.

"It was now parked right in front of his window."

Sally looked uncomfortable and leaned closer to Lightning, who wasn't looking too happy himself.

"He felt his engine sink as he began to shake. Quickly, he dialed nine-nine-nine."

"What's nine-nine-nine?" Annabel whispered to Finn, who sighed and answered, "nine-one-one in the UK."

"Oh-h… Really?"

"They answered immediately, and he quickly explained his situation." Holley continued. "That his family had been missing all day, how he'd been hearing noises, and now this… Creature, simply smiling at him.

"The operator asked if the door was locked, but noticed the creature. It had moved, and he said so.

"The operator asked what the creature was doing, to which the man shakily replied that it was shaking its head. "To what?" the operator asked. The bloke answered that his door must not be locked, and that he had to drive.

"He kept his phone with him as he sped to another part of the house, but loudly gasped and abruptly stopped. The operator asked what had happened, and all the man told them was that the creature was looking in through the open window on the other side of his house.

"There was growling and crashing on the other end, then the line went silent.

"No one knows what happened to the bloke; only that he was never seen again."

Holley finished her story while Mater shook. Everyone else was dead silent.

"…Holley?" Finn spoke up. "Where did that come from?"

"An uncle, maybe?"

"What kind of cruel uncle did you have?!" Lightning exclaimed.

"Well, screw the Ghostlight! I'll never look out a window at night again!" Annabel hugged herself, glancing over at Aaron. Her expression quickly changed to surprise. "Uh, Holley? I think you killed Aaron."

"No, I just…" Aaron looked pale and was hugging his knees.

"I think it's bedtime." Annabel suggested.

"I'll never sleep again." Aaron murmured. Annabel giggled.

"Well, just maybe not _tonight…_ " Sally frowned.

"Holley, will you do me one thing?" Finn turned to his partner.

"Yes, Finn?"

"Never tell that to Siddeley." Finn ordered.

Holley smiled. "Understood."

 **It's so cold in my room oh my god help I'm shaking**

 **Do you know how hard it is to type when you're shaking**

 **It's hard**

 **Sorry**

 **Hey review maybe because I'm alive? No? That's fine hope you enjoyed**

 **Or not the ending kinda sucked I know**

 **Um**

 **Bye**


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